Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Thursday, December 06, 2012

PublishersLunch

Amazon's latest announcement
has two interesting aspects: They are bundling digital children's content
across media into a combined "library" or subscription, and they are
broadly selling that subscription to all customers, not just Prime
"members." Called Kindle
FreeTime Unlimited, the all-in-one subscription service works
on any Kindle Fire device and will be available as part of an automatic OS
software update "in the coming weeks." The package features books,
games, educational apps, movies and TV shows focused on children ages 3-8.
Amazon Prime members get preferred pricing--$2.99/month per individual child
(or $6.99 per family)--but others can subscribe for $4.99/month (or $9.99 per
family.)

Andrews McMeel Publishing, Chronicle Books,
DC Comics, Disney, HIT Entertainment, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Marvel,
Nickelodeon, PBS, Reading Rainbow, and Sesame Workshop are among the companies
making their content available for Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. Chris Van
Allsburg’s “Jumanji” and Barbara Lehman’s “The Red Book" are among the
available picture books, along with those featuring characters like Big Nate,
Ivy and Bean, Phineas & Ferb, Shrek, and Kung Fu Panda. The service also
includes ebook apps and in-book games from characters such as Thomas &
Friends, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Arthur, Duck and Goose, Caillou and
Superman, and from award-winning children’s author Sandra Boynton.

The Amazon store currently shows just over
1,000 Kindle ebooks, 329 videos and 157 apps available in the
package. When a parent subscribes, titles are shown sorted by their
child's age and gender, and parents can control what content the child can
access.

Oprah Winfrey's revamped, Occasional Book
Club 2.0 has
selectedAyana
Mathis' debut novel THE TWELVE TRIBES OF HATTIE (Knopf) as its
second choice. The book was originally set for publication in mid-January but
has been moved up to release today instead. As part of the announcement
Oprah said: "The opening pages of Ayana’s debut took my breath away. I
can't remember when I read anything that moved me in quite this way, besides
the work of Toni Morrison."

Oprah had picked Cheryl Strayed's WILD in
June, following the book's publication in March. At the time, she said the
OBC2.0 would feature "several selections" through the remainder
of 2012.